De Santos || Book I ✔

To the world, they are the monsters in the dark. To each other, they are the only safe place left to bleed.

Cataleya Restrepo was built for one thing: survival. Reborn in the brutal world of a Colombian cartel after her family was ripped away, she knows how to handle a blade, manipulate an enemy, and close a case without leaving a trace. She thought her heart died a decade ago. She thought her life was defined entirely by the blood on her hands and the ghost she was chasing.

Until a high-stakes mission forces her into the territory of the Chicago Syndicate-and directly into the path of the dangerous men she was taught to hate.

Enzo Martinelli, the controlled kingpin.

Diego Santiago, the lethal shield.

And most dangerously of all: Rodrigo De Santos.

Rio is an enigma wrapped in absolute chaos. A legendary assassin with a terrifyingly calm smile, a devastating streak of dark humor, and an emotional instability that keeps the entire underworld on its toes. He is a beautiful nightmare who believes he was never made for love, hiding a profound, aching loneliness behind a wall of sarcasm and violence.

When a multi-family war erupts and alliances crumble, Cataleya is forced to survive alongside the very people she was sent to destroy. But between the cold concrete of safehouses, midnight confessions, and the quiet intimacy of patching up each other's wounds, the lines between enemy and ally begin to blur.

In a world where vulnerability is a death sentence, Rio falls first in a way that utterly terrifies him, while Cataleya slowly realizes she has finally found a place to call home.

They are both beautifully broken, entirely toxic to the rest of the world, and fiercely protective of one another. Because when the smoke clears, this isn't a fairytale. It's a raw, addictive journey of two dangerous people finding belonging in the dark, learning how to exist outside of survival mode, and discovering if people raised in violence can ever truly deserve a future